Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 202

Six Sentence Sunday – alone

When I went to sign up for the next Six Sentence Sunday, I found this announcement:

There will be no Six Sentence Sunday this week as I migrate the site to a more reliable platform and even it's own web address. But it'll be back in time for sign ups to start on June 7, 2011. 

See ya then!
Sara

Doh! So only for my beloved regular readers, here's a Six Sentence Sunday all alone!

This is the last time I'm posting something about the Southern Kingdoms. Next week I'll start posting excerpts of Books of the Immortals – Fire, which is set 150 years later, when all those wonderful India/Persia inspired kingdoms are no more. Sigh.

Anyway, due to the overwhelming response to last week's piece (which nobody will see, except you regulars, but shame on them, not you, if you're here, thank you! ), here's more from The Slave (same scene as last week, skipped a few lines). Kushan has asked her where she comes from and she said her country is called Queendom of Maadre and is ruled by a woman.

___________________

"A ruling queen?" he couldn't believe his ears.

"That's why we call it queen-dom instead of king-dom," she said, looking at him as if he were dumb. It seemed very obvious to her, but he had never heard that concept before.

This explained her behavior, though. A country ruled by women. No wonder she was so outspoken and could look him in the eyes without blushing.

_____________________

Now you can imagine why he was jarred by her compliments and behavior! The Slave is included in Arquon (2 Tales of the Southern Kingdoms) along with The Sect (a free read on this very blog).

WoW Saturday

Both "writers on writing" and "words of wisdom" can be shortened with the same word. Thus, welcome to WoW Saturdays, June to September 2011. Enjoy this collection of writers quotes throughout the summer.

"Every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future." - Jorge Luis Borges

 

"No one is asking, let alone demanding, that you write. The world is not waiting with bated breath for your article or book. Whether or not you get a single word on paper, the sun will rise, the earth will spin, the universe will expand. Writing is forever and always a choice — your choice."

- Beth Mende Conny

 

"People say to me, 'so is the Stone Gods science fiction?' Well, it is fiction, and it has science in it, and it is set (mostly) in the future, but the labels are meaningless. I can't see the point of labelling a book like a pre-packed supermarket meal. There are books worth reading and books not worth reading. That's all."

- Jeanette Winterson

 

"Write as if everyone you ever loved was dead." It's great advice for writers. Right up there with "Murder your Darlings" (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, apparently) and "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water" (Kurt Vonnegut). But who said it? (I must have the phrasing off, since Googling yielded nothing, but I'm sure that was the essential meaning of the advice.)

- Scott McCloud

 

My goal isn't to save the world. My goal isn't to take down the Big 6. My goal is to make a good living doing what I love.

But if I can also help a bunch of writers, and help destroy a greedy, bloated, ignorant industry, it's an epic win for writers and for readers.

- J.A.Konrath

Linky Friday

Ooookay, let's start the Friday version of Linky Saturdays!

Heidi M.Thomas on words for writers. I don't have much to add to that!

JC Martin, the fighter writer, on action scenes in writing. That girl really k… some a…!!

Literary Lab on don't expect only compliments – which for me, having just received both from my newest editor… wow. He's darn right. Constructive criticism makes my brain work harder!

Fellow Six Sentence Sunday author Sandra Sookoo on real life men, and how they're NOT romance heroes. An hilarious post even for a single like me!

An author who responds to a Bad Review with a totally different stance than the other one I posted some time ago… and she's even a former screenwriter, maybe I should "friend" her so we could rant about Hollywood!

And I'm also on that blog with some excerpts, by the way… it's Shaina's again, it's called ebooksFreeFreeFree, feel free to submit your free reads!

At the Passive Voice more on how publishers are under-reporting ebook sales from another source than the usual suspects… As Dean Wesley Smith suggests, this is a blog to keep an eye on… in fact it's on my blogroll now! Did you know you're licensing rights to your photos when you tweet them, by the way? Another good reason NOT to join Twitter…

Passive Guy also subscribes to David Farland's Weekly Kick! Here's his take on the latest news… which was followed by another e-mail announcing David Farland goes indie too!

Our first book will be THE NIGHTINGALE. We anticipate launching the series on all four platforms this fall. Here is a link to our web site: http://eastindiapress.com/

So now everybody is following Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch's advice – even if Dean has pros and cons about the new discussion between Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath.

Books&Such on Grammar Shrammar – geez, and I thought I had it figured out!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Improvising… again

I'm not sure when last improvised post was, probably on some Saturday months ago. It's Thursday, but as I mentioned, we have a national holiday too, so I'm at home pretending it's Saturday. I wanted to make a post on Italy because a friend on Facebook pointed me to this article on Mr.B, but I decided against it. Because a) I'm not into politics, even if I do go to vote (not for him, in case you haven't noticed) and b) I still don't know what women find in that creepy dwarf. The article is very long but very good, but – like watching Videocracy (the fat man in white surrounded by boys is Lele Mora)- made me feel an alien in this country again.

Europe according to Mr.B (found on Facebook)

OK, I'm an alien on this whole planet some days, but still…I don't understand men nor women most of the time! If you compliment me, I might react just like Kushan in my story The Slave – I don't believe in compliments for looks. Even if, like everybody else, I'm attracted to external beauty in the first place, it's not that that will ultimately seduce me – I think. Probably the person who will actually seduce me isn't born yet, haha. And it's certainly not that disgusting dwarf mentioned above.

Anyway, I guess I'll just use this post because it's June (already?!) and I'm changing some programming on this blog (damn, I sound like a TV owner now! ). Love Story with… will come back in September or maybe October – you can read all 20 by going to the category or clicking the link. Saturdays will be Writers on Writing/Words of Wisdom again, which means the links are anticipated to Fridays, starting tomorrow. Sundays will still be Six Sentence, even if the official blog doesn't run (like next Sunday, haha), and Mondays you'll still have your dose of Happiness is… I've reached the 100th vignette, but I'm always on the look for more happinesses, so feel free to share yours!

Now I better go back to work. I have to edit and check years 1186 and 1187 on The Fern and The Cross + draw 5 pages of SKYBAND (should have been 4, but last night I was sick and couldn't do it, sigh!). The cover of Fire looks great, on Saturday I should have the map and be able to complete the book trailer. It has been a struggle to put the music, this time, some mp3 didn't work on Windows Movie Maker (no matter how many time I downloaded or imported them), but luckily I still have a couple to choose from (that's what friends are for, on Saturday the first to arrive will have to help me choose, haha!)

Daily prompt, weekly photo challenge

And this week topic is… WATER! (Yeah, that's also the third Book of the Immortals, but I'm not going there yet, haha!). Now, I have plenty of pictures of lakes, rivers, even seaside (including rain-covered train window from Wales…), so it was hard to choose! So I decided to pick three mostly European things hoping to show you something you don't already know!

First an Andalusian lake (sorry, can't remember the name…), so we're in Spain:

Andalusia (Spain) 2009

Now we move to the other side of the Atlantic for another, much bigger lake you probably heard of: Lake Michigan (picture taken in Chicago).

Chicago 2008

Why? So you can compare it with our local sea, the Mediterranean. Here you have the Mar Tirreno on the northern coast of Tuscany.

Marina di Massa (Tuscany, Italy) 2010

The difference? It's in the smell. The picture in the middle looks like the third one but smells like the first one… And it was freezing cold (we had snow later that day) while the other two places are both hot!

Now, I could also a river… or a waterfall… so I guess I'll post 5 pictures (did I ever mention 5 is my favorite number? ). So, here goes the river: not sure of the name, but it runs through Garfagnana – Tuscany again. And the bridge is called "Devil's bridge".

Ponte del Diavolo (Tuscany - Italy)

I haven't taken many pictures of European waterfalls or whatnot, so the last picture is of a hot spring in the heart of Yellowstone National Park… It's hot water, but still water, right?

Dragon's mouth - Yellowstone National Park

OK, I can't leave without a waterfall, so here's Running Eagle waterfall…

Running Eagle Falls - Glacier National Park

And let's end with a northern lake, at Glacier Park!

Glacier National Park

That's all my water for now, folks! (And if you're wondering, yes, I've been traveling more often to the US than Europe lately…)

Rants and… Bollywood

So, how was your weekend? A long one for my American friends from what I've seen on the SSS posts! We're having a national holiday on June 2nd, so this will be a short working week for me as well!

Friday I mourned the passing of Jeff Conaway (as eagerly pointed out by Mickey) watching Grease again. See, that was my first "grown up" movie during the summer of 1979 and I can't remember if I preferred blue-eyed Danny (John Travolta) or his best friend Kenickie (Jeff Conaway). I know I loved all the songs and bought the double-vinyl of the soundtrack in Paris. And I still love it (and I like also Grease 2 with a young Michelle Pfeiffer, BTW).

I spent Saturday and Sunday drawing for the Fire book trailer (still working on it, ahem…). Tomorrow I'll hopefully have the cover and on Thursday the editor should get back to me. Next weekend I'm busy with the planned medieval dinner, but during the following week I hope to be able to edit and format Fire for a June 10th release.

I've joined Stumble Upon, but I'm still trying to figure out things there! I stumbled on a couple of interesting things, but I haven't really bookmarked them…

Aaaaand, because we have a brand new Bollywood magazine in Italian, I finally went on Amazon and set up my order from my list! Here we go:

1 "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Bollywood Movie / Indian Cinema / Hindi Film)"

Shahrukh Khan; DVD; $11.49

1 "Dhoom Bollywood DVD With English Subtitles"

Abhishek Bachchan; DVD; $8.25

1 "Jodhaa Akbar (3 Disc Collector's Edition)"

Hrithik Roshan; DVD; $14.28

1 "Mohabbatein (Bollywood Movie / Indian Cinema / Hindi Film / DVD)"

Shah Rukh Khan; DVD; $9.99

1 "Darr (Shahrukh Khan / Indian Cinema / Bollywood Movie / Hindi Film DVD)"

Shahrukh khan; DVD; $8.99

1 "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (Bollywood Movie / Indian Cinema / Hindi Film / DVD)"

Amitabh Bachchan; DVD; $9.99

1 "Dhoom 2 Back In Action Bollywood DVD With English Subtitles"

Hrithik Roshan; DVD; $8.99

And while checking Jodaa Akbar I found also this one:

Umrao Jaan (Bollywood Movie / Indian Cinema / Hindi Film / DVD)

Condition: new

——————————————————————–

Item Subtotal                   :  $4.80

Shipping & Handling             :  $12.29

Total                           :  $17.09

Damned mailing expenses! But it's already shipped, and by UPS, so it should arrive before the other seven…

Anyway, now I don't remember if those titles were suggested by my dear friends Shafali, Hema and Jai or if I found the titles on Shah Rukh's bio, but they should arrive sometime during the summer… I watched the trailers online and look forward to put my hands on all of them, mwahahahaha!

And I think I've found another very cute face to keep an eye on… )!

Happiness is…

Six Sentence Sunday

*gasps* My goodness, how many good writers do we have on this list now?!

*waves* Hello, Sunday visitors! Hope you're having a great time hopping from one blog to the others with all these six sentence goodies…

I'm changing story again, this one is from "The Slave". It's set in the southern kingdoms like Air and The Dancer, but it's before (some 20 years before the start of the novel – none of the main characters are born yet! ). In Arquon the king is considered a semi-god (for now… but this is the story of the last real king of Arquon), so when Kushan receives as a gift a slave from his brother-in-law Arjun of Rajendra (Indira's father for those who read Air), he is quite puzzled by her behavior. This is from the opening scene: he has found her asleep instead of eagerly awaiting for him, and the shock is not going to fade anytime soon…

***

She kept her eyes on him way too boldly.

"You shouldn't look at me," he snapped, uneasy.

"Sorry." She averted her eyes with a shrug. "I wouldn't be staring if you weren't such a pleasant sight."

"What?" he exploded, outraged. How dare she?

***

OK, it's seven sentences but one is really one word. The Slave in included in Arquon, 2 tales of the southern kingdom available on Smashwords.

Now hop off to the official blog for more six sentence goodies!

Linky Saturday

Another week gone, and another month almost gone too…

In case you missed them, I uploaded a few things on Smashwords:

Lady Ice and Jessamine the graphic novel + Arquon which includes The Sect you've read here and The Slave (more on this tomorrow – it's my Six Sentence Sunday). And The Orphans about Keiko and Kumar's first meeting with the Sect (i.e 15 years before Air).

And after complaining I had no reviews, I got two more!

I'm also starting to use Smashwords like Facebook, "liking" other authors and adding books to my library (I use it like the Amazon wish list – eventually I'll buy/download them). On Goodreads I'm still completely lost, though…

Anyway, to the links!

Michelle Davidson Argyle on why it isn't about the big publishing deal to which here are my thoughts: I've been writing and wanting to get published since my teens. Official start date 1978 and I'll be 46 this summer. True that for may years I didn't submit and wrote mostly for myself. I started growing as a writer when I started giving my writing to friends. And now indie publishing. And maybe one day I'll find a small traditional publisher for other projects. But I'm like Michelle. Quit whining, if it's not fun, why keeping at it?

Shaina Richmond explains why she started I love Smashwords – where I even signed up for the forum, but hadn't gone back since, haha. Unfortunately I have more time at the office and I'm on the wrong side of the ocean to meet somebody there during that time slot. But we'll see, maybe during the weekend I'll have time to check in again.

While I'm on I love Smashwords, Jeff Thomason explains how to have good use of Stumble upon. I think I stumbled on it, but thought it was too complicated for me, but maybe now I'll give it another try! J.A.Laughlin on being a successful author – that's why I call myself an Author, haha! And for you Kindle owners out there, here's how to download for your Kindle from Smashwords and other non-Amazon sites! And finally, if you're a Smasher and want to submit your coupons to Kitchen sink Sunday… readers will probably enjoy the discounts!

Bloodred Pencil on info dump, which is something I've been struggling with in my historical novel (I don't want to end up like Alessandro Manzoni, although he became a classic in spite of boring his readers to death…). And also on research for fiction – yeah, even genre writers like me. I've written for years without research, but I'm glad to having added layer to Silvery Earth when I started researching!

Dean Wesley Smith on e-books as gift cards (!!) and killing another sacred cow of publishing: only if you stop writing you will kill your career. Trust him, he's totally right!

Kristine Kathryn Rusch on surviving the transition part 1 and part 2. And J.Daniel Sawyer on contracts – a must read for all creative people.

Mickael Stackpole on the way of the Dodo book. More words of wisdom from another pro.

Self-published authors lounge warns about networking scams. Looks like Writers Beware are now everywhere…

Love-story with… races of the world

OK, so I spent what I still consider the best years of my life (1973-1978, yeah, a century ago! ) in a most international city, Geneva – Switzerland, next to the UN palace… not really, but I went there sometimes for shopping (don't ask me what advantages we had there, I was too young to care). Anyway, it's a very international town with people from all over the world, so I was used to see children of all colors and races (and that's probably why I still feel "international" today).

I wished to have a black boy in my classroom, but it never happened (although I had a couple of  "metisse" girls – a la Will Smith, not Don Cheadle – during the last 2 years). But I had a couple of almond-eyed girls during the first 3 years, one from Japan (who at 10/11-year-old could already draw like an adult, they're gifted, no wonder they have manga for all ages! ) and the other from Laos. My sister had African classmates, but not me, sniff.

Then I came back to Rome and an all "white" world… and it showed in my writing! I never wished to be blonde like my sister (who used to draw herself with long blond tresses when mum forced us to keep our hair short – and we were both brunettes), but everybody around me and on TV was "white," so my "casting" were quite obvious.

My first Asian Character was based on Hiroyuki Sanada's Ayato, and it's a(n awful) sci-fi story of the early 80s. Then I started traveling on my own and watching world movies, and in the 90s I put

In the new millennium I decided that the "Black Empire" mentioned in the Chronicles of the Varian Empire (hopefully out next year) was called so because of the inhabitants' skin color (so it's not a fantasy cliche for "evil kingdom" but a fantasy version of Africa). And then I added the Islands Empire, very loosely based on China AND Japan (I haven't done much research yet, but I don't have a story set there, only characters coming from there and traveling around, haha ) and in the "past" the southern kingdoms are based on India and Persia (after the fall of the Varian Empire it's loosely North Africa/Arabia, as there's a brand new Sahara-like desert down there).

So I love them all. Long before Angelina Jolie started the trend (and when I still wanted children) I dreamed of having one white (I hadn't considered the father could be of another color), then adopt four more, one Caucasian, one Asian, one African and one from the First Nations (white, yellow, black and red, right?). Now I don't want children, but I wouldn't mind a man of another skin color – provided he's at least as tall as myself  (which, unfortunately, probably rules out most Asians, sigh).

We're all humans after all, aren't we?

Love and peace!